The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History (Revised and Updated Edition) (Paperback)

by Don Oberdorfer (Author) "A loft on dazzling white wings, the great cranes wheel in the sky and float down for a landing in a richly forested, unspoiled two-and-a-half-mile..." (more)
Key Phrases: submarine incursion, irradiated fuel rods, divided peninsula, North Korea, South Korea, United States (more...)

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal
Oberdorfer first toured Korea in 1953 courtesy of the U.S. Army and returned often on the Asia beat for the Washington Post. In the present volume, his accounts of the conflicts of the last 20 years, appraisals of leaders based on interviews in Korea, Japan, Washington, and Moscow, and incisive policy analysis form a detailed and insightful history of North and South Korean politics and U.S. policy. Particularly engrossing is the analysis of relations between Moscow and Washington and their defiant clients, which turned domestic rifts into world conflict from the 1950s through the potentially nuclear crisis of 1994 and the present famine. The obvious comparison is with Bruce Cumings's commanding Korea's Place in the Sun: A Modern History (LJ 2/15/97). Cumings analyzes the evolution and nature of Korea's political economy over the last few centuries. Oberdorfer brings to life the events, leaders, and decisions of the last 20 years. Larger public and academic collections will want both volumes.?Charles Hayford, Evanston, Ill.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews
An old Asia hand offers a briefing that's more notable for the breadth than for the depth with which it addresses the issues still dividing North from South Korea. Oberdorfer (The Turn, 1991, etc.) starts his narrative in 1972, the first time that Pyongyang representatives had openly visited Seoul since the peninsular country was partitioned in the wake of WW II, and then reviews the ongoing negotiations on reunification. The author (a former Far East correspondent for the Washington Post) goes on to detail the South's blood-sport approach to politics at a time when the continued presence of Kim Il Sung lent the North a measure of stability. By way of example, the KCIA gunned down Park Chung Hee, opening the way for Chun Do Hwan. Following deadly riots in 1987, another would-be strongman, Roh Tae Woo, bested reformers Kim Dae Jung and Kim Young Sam for the presidency, leaving him to oversee the 1988 Olympiad successfully staged in Seoul. In the meantime, Beijing gave Seoul a jolt, following Moscow's lead and establishing diplomatic relations with South Korea. Shortly before the Democratic People's Republic of Korea's founding father died in mid-1994, the wider world and Washington became gravely concerned about the Red state's nuclear capabilities. Jimmy Carter helped avert a full-blown crisis, however, and Kim's son (Kim Jong Il), who inherited an economy on the rocks, is coping as best he can with famine and a host of other daunting internal problems. Yet the impoverished North continues its efforts to subvert the flourishing South. Even so, Oberdorfer is reluctant to predict whether, let alone when, the two Koreas will be reunited. Indeed, he exits on the breezy note that there's no telling what may happen in a country so full of surprises. A fine overview of Korea's recent past, which will leave most readers frustrated by its lack of analysis on what might lie ahead for this divided nation. (b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 496 pages
• Publisher: Basic Books; Rev. & upd. edition (February 5, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0465051626
• ISBN-13: 978-0465051625
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (24 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #166,827 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great behind-the-scenes insight into Korean Foreign Policy, June 11, 2000

By	William R. Marmie (Elbert, CO) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History (Paperback)

Oberdorfer's book on "The Two Koreas" is well-named. The book's focus is on the relationship of North and South Korea told from the perspective of an American journalist. Oberdorfer's credibility as a journalistic scholar is high especially when he frankly admits that, during the Carter administration, as a journalist, he didn't understand the depth of the divisiveness of the issue of pulling out of South Korea among Carter's subordinates. The book's historical lens is largely focused on events of the 1970s, the period when Oberdorfer was a foreign correspondent. While this does not diminish the value of the book, it restricts its usefulness to those readers interested mainly in events during that era. A couple of things seem to be missing. Reading between the lines, it is possible to string together some consistency in the North Korean position. It would have been nice if Oberdorfer had done more to summarize the exchange of dialogue and the events in a table to facilitate this kind of analysis. The same could be said of South Korea's economic development. It occurred so rapidly with government assistance, it would have been nice to have it contrasted with other economic models to see more clearly how the economic development came about. With that said, however, it may simply be that these topics were outside of the scope of Oberdorfer's objectives. I really enjoyed Oberdorfer's description of the political considerations that were going on behind-the-scenes in American foreign policy circles. At times, it is a sad story of ignorance and emotion (e.g., Carter's position) and, at other times, it is a story of rational behavior (e.g., the American response to the Ax incident). I recommend this book to anyone interested in a primer on Korean politics. The still-curious reader will need to move beyond this book to understand the Korean economic situation and to understand the North Korean position better.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly relevant. A "must read"., October 27, 2002

By	J. J. Bevill "JJBevill" (Houston, Texas USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This review is from: The Two Koreas: A Contemporary History (Hardcover)

I bought this book based on my satisfaction with Oberdorfer's outstanding book, TET, which I read many years ago.

THE TWO KOREAS is mainly a political history of the two Koreas since 1972. He begins with a broad and basic overview of Korea's history, and the absurd way in which the country came to be partitioned at the end of WWII. The main story line begins in 1972, with the origins of communications between the two Koreas, and continues up through 1996.

Although the focus is political developments in the conflict between the two Koreas, economic and social elements are added to contrast their respective development over time. The word that comes to mind when contemplating North Korea is "bizarre".

The most interesting theme is on North Koreas' drift to aquiring nuclear weapons, and the factors that prompted it. Interestingly, South Korea had pursued the development of nuclear weapons in the 1970's, but that effort was stopped by the United States. Later, North Korea began nuclear development which lead to the situation we find ourselves in today (2002), with North Korea admitting it has nuclear weapons.

Readable, relevant, interesting, and insightful, this is an excellent start to understanding how the two Koreas came to be, and while the story ends with 1996, it isn't difficult to understand how North Korea eventually came to have nuclear weapons.

Those looking for scholarly analysis and major footnotes will not find them. However, the book does have fascinating accounts of the major player's actions and thinking, and first person sources that only a journalist will have. Those sources add personal insight and current perspective to the issues discussed.

This book is well worth the money and effort.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Informative but a bit awkward, August 26, 2007

By	Timothy J. Graczewski "tgraczewski" (Burlingame, CA United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I picked up "The Two Koreas" before leaving for my first visit to Seoul and Busan hoping to get a full picture of political and economic developments on the peninsula since the end of the Korean War. I usually pre-screen my book purchases thoroughly, but in this case chose Oberdorfer's piece simply because it appeared to be the best option available on short notice.

This isn't a bad book; but it is a bit awkward. First, the only logic to the timeframe covered (roughly 1972 to 2000) is that it cooresponds to Oberdorfer's personal experience in Korean affairs as a journalist with the Washington Post. The post-war years of the authoritarian regimes of Syngman Rhee and Kim Il Song are not discussed at all, nor are the early years of Park Chung Hee's regime in the 1960s as he laid the groundwork for the South Korean economic miracle of the late twentieth century.

Second, the weight of the narrative is heavily focused on the North Korean nuclear program and the efforts of the Clinton administration to negotiate a settlement with Pyongyang in the 1990s. Large and important swaths of Korean history in the 1970s are dealt with in a largely cursory manner, but the 1994 nuclear crisis is reconstructed in an almost hour-by-hour chronology of events. Indeed, nearly half of the book is dedicated to just a handful of events in the 1990s.

Finally, the style of "The Two Koreas" is a clumsy blend of narrative history and personal memoir cum political analysis. Oberdorfer should have pursued one of two approaches to his topic. He could have written a comprehensive contemporary narrative of post-war Korea in the spirit and style of similar endeavors by veteran foreign journalists, the most notable example being Stanley Karnow's wonderful piece on the Philippines, "In our Image." Or he could have fully embraced the use of the first person and written a memoir on his experiences in Korea and how that experience has shaped his perception of Korean history and the future of North/South relations, much as Tom Friedman did with his award-winning memoir/history "From Beirut to Jerusalem." Instead, "The Two Koreas" reads like a personal, casual conversation with Don Oberdorfer over drinks at a club on Capitol Hill. He delves deeply into the topics he knows best, punched up with anecdotes from personal encounters with the key players at the time, while providing just basics on the other parts of the story he is less familiar with.

The above notwithstanding, "The Two Koreas" does provide a good introduction to some of the key players and Korean events of the past three decades, from the ax-handle murders at the DMZ in 1976 and assassination of Park Chung Hee in 1979 to the government crack-down on government protests in Gwangju in 1980 and the arrest of former presidents Roh Tae-Woo and Chun Doo Hwan in 1996 on corruption charges.

Concerning the on-going North Korean nuclear crisis, which is really the focus of this book, Oberdorfer clearly sees the program as Pyongyang's only effective card to play in relations with the United States and the international community. As the communist bloc imploded, North Korea witnessed the blossoming relationship between Seoul and the Soviet Union and China with no reciprocal rapprochment between Pyongyang and Washington. Oberdorfer suggests that Pyongyang basically stumbled upon the nuclear program as the one sure-fire way to the undivided attention of leaders in the United States and develop the dialogue and aid packages the beleagered communist state so desperately needs.

One final point should be noted. The cover states that the book has been "revised and expanded," but any potential reader should know that "The Two Koreas" does not cover critical events in the 2000-2005 timeframe, including Pyongyang's admission that the government never lived up to the original terms of the Agreed Framework in the first place.